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Monday, January 12, 2015

Week 75: My new companion's name is Elder Nicholas

So I realized from my last letter that I did not give my
new companion's name. It is Elder Nicholas. He is from Corrine, Utah. This is
his last transfer on a mission so I get to end up serving with him and learning
a lot from him while he is here in Casper.

On Tuesday morning we started out the day well with a
great study together and then we headed over to the church building for a Zone
meeting where we exchanged teaching records for the new areas that we have. We
gained several people to teach and also one investigator who is really close to
baptism. Some of the others are hard to get to seeing as it would be a 7 mile
round trip to walk there. So we are still figuring out which members would be
willing to take us there and give us a ride back to our apartment.

Wednesday went very well. I introduced Elder Nicholas to
JD, one of the less active members. JD talked a lot about dogs and how much he
wants to have a blue Australian shepherd. We also were able to have a great
discussion about obedience with him and how we receive blessings conditional on
our obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel connected with those blessings.

We also talked with the Atkinson family on how we can
better do missionary work here in Casper. We got some great suggestions and
shared an uplifting message with them. As we were trying people we didn't have
appointments with we were inspired to go try the Allred family. We did and
coincidentally it happened to be one of the weeks he had off from work. He
works in the oil rigs and has 4 weeks on and 2 weeks off. We talked about how
we could do better at missionary work and also talked with him about his
conversion story. The spirit was strong and he promised to come to church. We
didn't see him there though so we will try again to see him to ask why.

We were also inspired later in the night to go see Justin
Hankel. The way it happened was great. We were walking to see someone else and
there was a truck that got stuck. We went to help him out and decided to just
go try Justin because we were closer to him. The resulting lesson was amazing.
We came to see him right after he had been going through some hard times. As we
taught him there filled in his life a sweet spirit which he was able to
recognize. He invited us back. We have high hopes for him. He is very open and
willing to act and recognizes that the message and spirit we bring is of God
and will greatly improve his life.

On Thursday we took an hour to go research on the
internet for some of our investigators on mormon.org and lds.org.
As we were walking to the library we were going down a hill and we slipped onto
the soft snow and slid all the way down on our coats just like if we were
sledding. It was a lot of fun and we laughed about it for a while.

On Friday we decided to try out the bus system to see how
well it would help us get around our large area without a car. So we did and
were able to get to the area where some of our new people to see were. We saw
Brenda Hillan a less active sister and found out where Devyn Young lived.

Church was great. We met many new people. We also
received a new Ward Mission Leader. Spencer Larson. We also taught the
Reardons. They were confused by why we kept coming over and didn't want to
continue, but after we listened, asked questions, and testified, they changed
their minds and will let us keep going over. It was a very powerful lesson
where we were all able to be edified. They are still hesitant to take action by
changing churches, but they recognize the spirit and like it when we come over.
So we'll see what we can do about that.

It's been a great week. I have had so many blessings. I
am glad to be serving in the Lord's vineyard. I am looking forward to the
coming weeks.